Two more Birmingham schools hit by swine flu

Jun 10 2009 by Nick McCarthy, Birmingham Mail

TWO more Birmingham schools have been hit by swine flu and a city centre office worker has also contracted the illness, it was revealed today.

Birchfield Community School, in Trinity Road, Aston, which will be shut for a week and the private Darul Uloom Islamic High School and College in Small Heath has been closed since Monday.

Both schools each have one confirmed case, although at Birchfield a number of other pupils were said to be unwell with influenza-type symptoms. It means that four city schools are currently closed while two others which have been hit by the illness are open.

The closure of Birchfield Community School, which also has 116 full and part-time pre-school pupils, comes as three further cases of the H1N1 virus in the West Midlands were confirmed by the Health Protection Agency.

One is a worker at the head office of Midland Heart in Bath Row. It has now cancelled all non-essential meetings.

Tom Murtha, Chief Executive Officer at Midland Heart, said: “We have one member of staff from our head office who has been confirmed as having swine flu.